UPDATE: Google Rescued Goldman Sachs In Email Debacle

NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Wednesday said
Google Inc has blocked access to an email containing confidential
client data that a contractor sent to a stranger's Gmail account
by mistake, an error that the bank said threatened a "needless
and massive" breach of privacy.

The breach occurred on June 23
and included "highly confidential brokerage account
information," Goldman said in a complaint filed on Friday
in a New York state court
in Manhattan.

Goldman did not say how many
clients were affected. It has been seeking a court order
compelling Google to delete the email, which it said on Wednesday
had yet to occur.

“Google complied with our request that it block access to the
email,” Goldman spokeswoman Andrea
Raphael said. “It has also notified us that the email
account had not been accessed from the time the email was sent to
the time Google blocked access. No client information has been
breached.” A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

According to Goldman, the
outside contractor had been testing changes to the bank's
internal processes in connection with reporting requirements set
forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Goldman said the contractor
meant to email her report, which contained the client data, to a
"gs.com" account, but instead sent it to a similarly named,
unrelated "gmail.com" account.

The bank said a member of Google's "incident response team"
reported on June 26 that the email could not be deleted without a
court order. "Emergency relief is necessary to avoid the risk of
inflicting a needless and massive privacy violation
upon Goldman Sachs'
clients, and to avoid the risk of unnecessary reputational damage
to Goldman Sachs," the
bank said in court papers.

Goldman is based in
New York, and Google in Mountain View, California.

The case is Goldman, Sachs & Co v. Google
Inc, New York State Supreme Court,
New York County, No. 156295/2014.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan
Grebler and Cynthia Osterman)

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